


Return to Pooh Corner

by funnygirlthatbelle13



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Hair Playing, Howard is a shitty father, IronDad and SpiderSon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-21
Updated: 2018-10-21
Packaged: 2019-08-05 14:19:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16369193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/funnygirlthatbelle13/pseuds/funnygirlthatbelle13
Summary: There is very little of Tony Stark’s past that isn’t tainted with sorrow. Even his most innocent-seeming memories are often corrupted by more sour experiences. When Peter learns of one such memory, he decides to create new memories to overshadow th bad ones.





	Return to Pooh Corner

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, everybody! So, this idea came to me when I popped into the school bookstore Friday afternoon. One Kenny Loggins tune later, and I had an idea buzzing around my head that I couldn’t get out. I hope you enjoy!

“‘But I think,’ said Piglet to Pooh, ‘that he’s been strengthened quite enough.’ And now it’s time for bed.”  
“Another one!” the little boy cried with delight. Three-year-old Anthony Stark was snuggled up on his mother’s lap, one hand on the red book Maria was reading to him from.  
“Not tonight, my dear,” his mother said, kissing him on the top of the head, “You need to go to bed.”

Gently, she picked him up, moving out of the rocking chair and carrying her son to his bed.   
“I’m not sleepy,” he protested, though his point was weakened by the fact that he yawned the moment his head hit the mattress. Maria smiled, brushing a piece of hair out of his face.   
“Are you going away tonight?” the little boy asked. Her smile flickered.  
“Your father and I are going out, but Jarvis will be here until we get back.”  
“But he’s old! What if a burger-er breaks in?”  
“Well,” said Maria, tucking him in, “Pooh and his friends will come help you.” She placed the book on her son’s nightstand and opened it to a picture of Pooh and the gang.

                                                                           *

Tony smiled as Peter walked into the lab.   
“Hey, kiddo,” he said. The kid smiled weakly.  
“Hey, Mr. Stark.” Something was definitely wrong.  
“Are you-“  
“I’ve got a headache,” he muttered, blushing and looking down at his feet.   
“It’s not a problem, Pete,” he assured him, “We just won’t listen to music today.”  
“Can I play, uh, I’ve got this playlist. I still need to filter all the background shit out and just… I mean, it’s quieter stuff, not as much- I mean, you could play it as loud, but there aren’t, like, electric guitars and-“  
Go ahead, kid,” he said, cutting off the ramble. Peter would go on apologizing for hours if he gave him the chance. With a small smile, the boy connected his phone to FRIDAY’s systems.   
“Hi, FRIDAY,” Peter said sweetly.  
“Hello, Mr. Parker,” she greeted warmly. Tony hadn’t programmed her to have favorites, but even she wasn’t immune to Peter’s sweetness.   
“Can you please shuffle my sensory overload playlist?”

Tony wasn’t surprised when the soft guitar began to play. It seemed like the kind of thing that would calm the kid down.

_Christopher Robin and I walked along under branches lit up by the moon._

“Are you okay, Mr. Stark?” Peter asked, concern evident in his voice. He had already sat down to get to work but was standing up now.   
“What is this song?” he asked, barely above a whisper. An overwhelming sense of dread filled him.   
“It’s ‘Return to Pooh Corner,’” Peter informed him, his eyes filled with fear, “Do you not like Kenny Loggins?”

_But I wandered much farther today than I should and I can’t seem to find my way back to the wood._

“Memories,” he said on the exhale, barely suppressing a panic attack. Peter paused the music.   
“Do you wanna talk about it?” God, the kid was taking care of him as if he were a child. He signed.   
“Put the music back on, Pete. I don’t want your headache getting worse.”   
“I don’t want you to have a panic attack,” Peter shot back without malice. Tony sighed as he sat down. Peter pulled up a chair next to him, staring intently.

“I was… well, I wasn’t ten yet. Eight or nine, maybe? Anyways, I had had a pretty shitty day at school. I was the youngest by, like, six or seven years, and my classmates weren’t exactly fond of me. I had really gotten the shit beaten out of me that day. Mom was out of town, Dad had a meeting, Jarvis was… somewhere. The point is I was alone and miserable, so I’d grabbed my Winnie the Pooh book. It was a first edition. My mom had had it forever. She’d read it to me as a bedtime story. It was fluff, the chicken noodle soup of literature, you know?”  
“That’s how I am with Mr. Rogers.” Tony smiled a little at this.   
“Yeah, so I was, uh,” he sniffled, “I was reading that. I was at the part where they were debating if Tigger bounced Eyeore when…” he seemed to have lost his voice; he couldn’t continue.   
“It’s okay, Mr. Stark,” Peter said as he placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. Tony closed his eyes and took a deep breath before attempting to continue.   
“That’s when Dad came home. And he found me curled up in bed reading fucking The House at Pooh Corner. He-he flipped; ripped the book out of my hands, screaming… I-I-I.” No, he was not crying over this.  
“I never saw that book again.”

Peter leaned his head into his mentor’s shoulder, unsure exactly how to feel. Anger and sadness swirled inside him, along with an instinctual desire to protect that usually only applied to May. Poor Mr. Stark, he thought, Peter may be an orphan, but he at least had a guardian who loved him. No one deserved awful parents, but especially not someone as amazing as his mentor.

*

“Peter will be by after school, so if you want some soup or anything, let him know so he can pick it up,” Pepper said as she buttoned her shirt. Tony laid in bed miserable, though less so than he had in the past week. His fever had broken and, miraculously, he was able to ingest more than just ginger ale and crackers. He was excited to see Peter again. Though his super strength and healing protected him from illness better than most immune systems, Tony didn’t want to risk it with such an unpleasant illness.

“If you need anything, call someone,” Pepper reminded him. She was unphased by illness. If anything, she touched him more when he was sick than when he was healthy, such as now, when she was pressing a kiss on his forehead.   
“I love you,” he whispered, trying not to breathe on her.  
“I love you too,” she said with a smile, “I’ll be back in three or four hours.” She squeezed his hand for a brief moment before leaving to go to the meetings she had had to reschedule due to his illness. He sighed, adjusting the pillow behind him.

“Mr. Stark? Mr. Stark?” He shot up, looking around for the attacker. Instead, he saw Peter standing in front of him carrying a large bag.   
“Hi, it’s me,” the boy said, “How are you feeling?”  
“Uh,” he muttered, “Hungry?” Peter smiled.  
“I thought so. I-uh… I got you this.” He placed the bag on the bed next to him and pulled out a hot to-go container of soup. Peter nodded, looking… nervous? He pulled a package out of the bag. The wrapping paper was beaten up, but the kid still held it tenderly. Awkwardly, he handed him the package.  
“It’s not my birthday, Pete.”   
“I know, but it- I wanted to.”

Curiously, he ripped open the wrapping paper only to be shocked into silence.  
“I know it’s not the right one. I looked it up online and was $3000 and none of the stores-“  
“Oh, Pete,” he whispered, tears filling up his eyes. It was a book, but not just any book. The red hardback cover, the gold debossing, the uneven pages… it was just like the book from his childhood.  
“It’s not actually the first edition. That costs… way too much. But they just started selling these replicas so I-“ At that point, Tony pulled the kid into a tight hug and allowed the tears he’d been holding back to fall freely.

_It’s hard to explain how a few precious things seem to follow throughout all our lives._

“It’s amazing,” Tony whispered, “You’re amazing, Pete.”

*

It turns out that his illness was stronger than Peter’s immune system. May had a mandatory business trip, so Peter was staying with him. Tony had been staying by his side and had been reading all day.   
“But wherever they go, and whatever happens to them on the way, in that enchanted place on the top of the Forest, a little boy and his bear will always be playing.” He looked over at Peter, who was fast asleep, and adjusted his blanket for maximum warmth. He brushed a curl back into place before turning to the book’s final image of Christopher Robin and Pooh Bear.

_I swear that old bear whispered “Boy, welcome home.”_

Tony pressed the book into his chest. It wasn’t his mother’s book; that had long since been lost or destroyed. But this book, the one Peter had gotten for him, brought back all the emotions and memories of the old one and soon, it would have many new ones as well.

He was home.

_Believe me if you can, I’ve finally come back to the House at Pooh Corner by one. What do you know? There’s so much to be done. Count all the bees in the hive, chase all the clouds from the sky. Back to the days of Christopher Robin, back to the ways of Christopher Robin, back to the days of Pooh._

When Pepper came to check on them, she found both of them asleep. Peter was curled into a tiny ball on the bed. Tony was sitting, snoring lightly, in a chair he’d brought into the room. And on the nightstand, that little red book was open to a picture of Winnie the Pooh.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Please tell me what you thought!


End file.
